|
|
Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jan 27, 2016 16:08:33 GMT
This is kind of on topic to my points about Ultima VII's strong points over SotA. Rune strikes true: www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/npc-towns-what-makes-them-special.44357/The only thing I can think to say at the moment is that SotA towns are just overly large? If you look at U7 towns, other Ultima towns, even towns in games like Skyrim, some of them are very quaint and small. When you have a town that takes 40s to run from end to end in a single direction like Trinsinc and then a town that takes 5+ min like Ardoris...but then have the same amount of content in each one of them, one of them is very dense(hi Mr Lucas). There is a lot to be said about monoscale mapping too, those loading screens, gawd. |
|
calico
Strong in the Force
Posts: 299 
|
Post by calico on Jan 27, 2016 16:13:34 GMT
Agreed, the towns at the moment are incredibly weak.
|
|
|
|
Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jan 27, 2016 16:20:53 GMT
Try this with some towns... Granted, Ultima has much more history to it than does SotA currently, but it could be fun.
What is the first thing that comes to mind when I say....
Skara Brae
Owls Head
Paws
Kingsport
Moonglow
Ardoris
Buccaners Den
Desolis
Here are mine:
Skara Brae: The answers to life, death, and everything.
Owls Head: Radio Station
Paws: Home of the poor seeking Humility from passing strangers.
Kingsport: How I get to Ardoris.
Moonglow: Home of Mariah and the Virtue of Honesty, sister to the fortress of Truth the Laycaeum.
Ardoris: Where I go to make Guilds.
Buccaners Den: Gambling, Secrets, Sex, Sailing.
Desolis: Sand.
|
|
titsup
Strong in the Force
Posts: 819
|
Post by titsup on Jan 27, 2016 16:35:23 GMT
I was going to post about rune's thread also. From my time playing, I had no sense of what town I was in most cases.
But then individualizing the towns with art, etc would need a much bigger team. The fact is the game is stuck with what it has.
|
|
|
|
Post by fossil on Jan 27, 2016 16:47:52 GMT
they have bigger fish to fry than blandness...
|
|
|
|
Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jan 27, 2016 16:49:54 GMT
|
|
calico
Strong in the Force
Posts: 299
|
Post by calico on Jan 27, 2016 18:24:16 GMT
they have bigger fish to fry than blandness... I don't know about that....I think this is one of the bigger problems. |
|
|
|
Post by fossil on Jan 27, 2016 19:34:29 GMT
they have bigger fish to fry than blandness... I don't know about that....I think this is one of the bigger problems. Optimization, Combat fluidity, Content, AI (pathfinding), NPC dialog, Balance (skills, enemies), etc... Ya blandness is way down the list. Unless they don't want anyone under 40 years old playing... |
|
calico
Strong in the Force
Posts: 299
|
Post by calico on Jan 27, 2016 19:58:41 GMT
I don't know about that....I think this is one of the bigger problems. Optimization, Combat fluidity, Content, AI (pathfinding), NPC dialog, Balance (skills, enemies), etc... Ya blandness is way down the list. Unless they don't want anyone under 40 years old playing... The problem with that is if the world basically sucks, ala cookie cutter towns like they sold in UO then the rest of that just doesn't matter. |
|
|
|
Post by fossil on Jan 27, 2016 21:22:37 GMT
Optimization, Combat fluidity, Content, AI (pathfinding), NPC dialog, Balance (skills, enemies), etc... Ya blandness is way down the list. Unless they don't want anyone under 40 years old playing... The problem with that is if the world basically sucks, ala cookie cutter towns like they sold in UO then the rest of that just doesn't matter. I am by no means in any disagreement with that, it's just the timeframe they have to work with. You can cosmetically make changes overtime to the environment settings. You can't launch the game with the issue that I've listed being poor. The blandness most people will tend to forgive especially since the current design is a grinder with very little character models. |
|
calico
Strong in the Force
Posts: 299
|
Post by calico on Jan 27, 2016 21:26:25 GMT
The problem with that is if the world basically sucks, ala cookie cutter towns like they sold in UO then the rest of that just doesn't matter. I am by no means in any disagreement with that, it's just the timeframe they have to work with. You can cosmetically make changes overtime to the environment settings. You can't launch the game with the issue that I've listed being poor. The blandness most people will tend to forgive especially since the current design is a grinder with very little character models. Yep, painted into a corner. I think in order to fix what they did they would have to overhaul them all, that just won't happen in the time provided. |
|
calico
Strong in the Force
Posts: 299
|
Post by calico on Jan 27, 2016 21:26:58 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by fossil on Jan 27, 2016 21:31:27 GMT
I am by no means in any disagreement with that, it's just the timeframe they have to work with. You can cosmetically make changes overtime to the environment settings. You can't launch the game with the issue that I've listed being poor. The blandness most people will tend to forgive especially since the current design is a grinder with very little character models. Yep, painted into a corner. I think in order to fix what they did they would have to overhaul them all, that just won't happen in the time provided. Besides the towns themselves being poor there is no NPC life in them either. It's kinda like the very first zone (it makes me laugh btw) why create a zone and only have one NPC in it. There's nothing in it. There are also scenes on the overland map that are basically empty. Your better to have less scenes with some life then a shit ton that are lifeless. |
|
|
|
Post by dewderonomy on Jan 28, 2016 2:26:01 GMT
Skara Brae Owls Head Paws Kingsport Moonglow Ardoris Buccaners Den Desolis : Gang wars on Catskills, telling Shamino the beer at the Shattered Skull tasted like piss and he agreed (lol EM). Owls Head: My wife laughing at how shitty the game looked. Paws: The First and Second Paws War on UO Forever (which we won with absurdly astonishing results). Kingsport: Is that the one that takes like 10 minutes and/or 15 random encounters to get to? It has a bridge, right? Moonglow: Fighting pirates on Angel Island. Ardoris: This has that one NPC that doesn't make sense - I'm guessing a player-made one - and it has a bunch of big, empty buildings and aqueducts, right? The Den: Wearing '99 era ranger armor while killing reds (and also losing said armor lots); black markets; piracy; hidden tunnels; Trinsic's annexation of the island as a penal colony on UO Forever (aka, we used it to gate people we didn't like there and kill them without repercussion) Desolis: I have no recollection of this place. ...Kingsport does have a bridge at the start, right? And like someone's big fucking keep across the river, all secluded? |
|
dodgy
Strong in the Force
Posts: 1,171
|
Post by dodgy on Jan 28, 2016 2:46:37 GMT
If I was poor I wouldn't hang around other poor people in a poor city. I'd take my poor arse to a rich city and beg there.
Paws is fundamentally flawed. It should be a leper colony
|
|
|
|
Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jan 28, 2016 2:47:19 GMT
...Kingsport does have a bridge at the start, right? And like someone's big fucking keep across the river, all secluded? I only remember two bridges in SotA. Solace Bridge where you start and the bridge in Ardoris because its massive. |
|
|
|
Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jan 28, 2016 2:50:39 GMT
If I was poor I wouldn't hang around other poor people in a poor city. I'd take my poor arse to a rich city and beg there. Paws is fundamentally flawed. It should be a leper colony By the sounds of your political stance, you should already know that some people don't have the social mobility to move  Paws was a modest farming town, but a drought caused a lot of the problems. Mayor of Britain also carted off all the sick and crippled and stashed them into Paws, making it even worse. Sounds familiar to a few places in the real world. |
|
dodgy
Strong in the Force
Posts: 1,171
|
Post by dodgy on Jan 28, 2016 3:04:26 GMT
If I was poor I wouldn't hang around other poor people in a poor city. I'd take my poor arse to a rich city and beg there. Paws is fundamentally flawed. It should be a leper colony By the sounds of your political stance, you should already know that some people don't have the social mobility to move Paws was a modest farming town, but a drought caused a lot of the problems. Mayor of Britain also carted off all the sick and crippled and stashed them into Paws, making it even worse. Sounds familiar to a few places in the real world. Social mobility is not the cause of Paws and does not describe my solution. Two very different things. Look at every refugee disaster. Peeps don't hang around and all that would be left would be the infirm. In fact Britain would be inundated with displaced farmers. Just saying. And think of the risk of dysentery and malaria as the swamp encroached? It's a humanitarian disaster waiting to happen. Britain would need FEMA camps to house the infected. |
|
|
|
Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jan 28, 2016 3:05:49 GMT
I get what you are saying, though I wasn't comparing Paws to that really!
|
|
Caliya
Strong in the Force
People fight to gain things they can't take with them in the end
Posts: 2,121 
|
Post by Caliya on Jan 28, 2016 12:07:02 GMT
Kingsport does have a bridge at the start, right? And like someone's big fucking keep across the river, all secluded? Depends where you enter Kingsport. Yes, there is a bridge, and on one side of the bridge is a lot of big fat housing. Entering from the other side (been way too long since I did - more than a year) there is a secluded castle on its own. Maybe a bridge there. There's also the bridge in Owl's Head, where that nasty guard stops and asks what business you have there. Well, he used to but doesn't anymore. That whole outlander stuff is nonsense. Not a single friendly city from what I've experienced. Probably other bridges, but definitely those 2 in towns. |
|
